Grief doesn’t end with the funeral. Mourners attend the funeral, pay their respects, and send their condolences. But as the rest of the world moves on, those left behind are met with silence – the absence, the empty seat at the dinner table.

Mediahuis, one of Belgium’s leading news publishers, and AKQA Brussels, decided to break that silence. With music. playlist.inmemoriam.be/en, an extension of its existing obituary platform, allows people to add music to a death notice.

While a traditional death notice often marks an end – the practical logistics, the date of the funeral, the final farewell, The Inmemoriam Playlist is a lasting space for remembrance.

“Grief and language often don’t go together. Words easily fall short when we try to describe or capture something as deeply felt as grief: the feeling of loss, of love, of pain… Music, on the other hand, speaks the language of emotion. Especially when it’s a song your loved one used to love, or a song that makes you feel profoundly close to them again. When you hear that song, something ‘switches on’ inside your body. The cellular memory in your body stirs with remembrance and tenderness. Grief doesn’t live in our heads or in our thinking, grief is present in every cell of our body and in everything we feel. And that is the magic of music: through that one song, your loved one feels very close to you again, even just for a moment,” says Katrijn Desteghe, integrative psychotherapist.

These personal stories come together in a unique digital experience – a virtual tree filled with memories. ​While mourning can often feel quiet and isolating, the tree shows that no one is alone in their grief. Visitors can wander through the memories of others, find shared comfort in each other’s songs, or quietly return to the memory of their own loved one.

“By seamlessly weaving together design, technology, and audio, we’re transforming a traditionally formal medium into a rich, interactive experience. The virtual tree serves as a metaphor: grief is no longer a solitary process confined to a static page, but a living ecosystem of shared memories,” stated Peter Ampe, CCO at AKQA Brussels.

The Inmemoriam Playlist has launched in the run-up to All Saints’ Day, a time traditionally dedicated to remembrance. The campaign will roll out across Mediahuis’s print and digital network, supported by targeted native content, social video assets, and earned media coverage.

Credits:
​Client: Mediahuis
​Client Team: Evy Nulens, Dries Vereecke

Agency: AKQA Brussels
​ECD: Peter Ampe
​Creative Team: Yana Gestels, David Magnus, Lilith Kempinck
​Account Team: Marko Van Dyck, Kirsten Verbeke, Julie Bongaerts
​Strategic planner: Yarne De Schrijver
​Design Director: Jan Sidgwick
​Motion Design: Simone Curzi
Web Development: Arno Van Biesen, Sebastiaan Weytjens, Judith Bosmans
​Technical Producer: Gregory Pin
Head of Production & Craft: Olivia Naudts ​
​Producer: Manon Laenen

Production Company: Czar.be
​Director: Kenneth Mercken
​Executive Producer: Eurydice Gysel
​Producer: Maarten De Sutter
​DOP: Charlie Speeckaert
​Editor: Manu Van Hove
​Grading: Tom Mulder
​Post Producer: Bieke De Keersmaecker

Post Production: AKQA Productions
​Editor: Sven Vanhee, Gilles Desplanque
​Sound Production: AKQA Productions
​Producer: Manon Laenen
​Sound Engineer: Mathieu Savenay ​

PR: AKQA Brussels PR
​Senior PR Manager: Astrid Jacobs